Princess Academy: A Review

Princess Academy by Shannon Hale
Recommended for: Girls, grade 4-8
Pages: 314

Princess Academy is not breaking any new ground, but it's a solid read, especially for its sweet spot of young girls ages 8-12. Author Shannon Hale tells a story of a young girl, Miri, living in a pre-industrial society. Everyone in her village works in a quarry mining a precious marble-like stone, but Miri's father keeps her home because he fears she is too small and slight to handle the rigors of quarry life.

The quiet village is turned on its ear when dignitaries from the low-lands come to inform the people of the village that their prince will choose a princess from the village in spring, and all the young girls must attend a mandatory training season at the Princess Academy. Miri becomes a leader of the girls against a stern taskmistress at the academy.

I won't give away any more of the plot, but there is nothing too threatening or surprising about this book. You can give it to your young girls with certainty that they will not encounter anything you wouldn't approve of, and they will probably enjoy reading it too.

Barefoot Gen

Book Review: Barefoot Gen Volumes 1-4

Author: Keiji Nakazawa

Recommended for: Middle school and up (Younger with parental guidance)

Genre: Manga/Graphic Novel/Comic Book

Barefoot Gen is a 4 volume graphic novel (or comic book) about the effect of the Atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima and its inhabitants. The translations can sometimes feel a bit stiff, but the illustration is lively and vital. Out of the ashes of the atomic bomb, plucky protagonist Gen finds a way to carry on, even in the face of horror. This book shows that often children, more readily than adults, can push forward in the face of tragedy.

This 4-volume series is based on the real life experiences of author Keiji Nakazawa, who, like Gen, lost his father, brother, and sister on the day of the atomic bomb, and later lost his baby sister to radiation sickness. I found this series very revealing about how the Japanese people perceived the war and how they survived the horrors brought about by the atomic bomb.

I suggest this book with a few reservations. First of all, there are a lot of scenes in which grown-ups strike children across the face. It seems silly to trifle with that when the whole point of the book is to show how 150,000 people perished from the bomb, yet those scenes of parents and teachers smacking their children were in some ways more disturbing to me. Still, if you think your child can handle it, or if you think you can talk him/her through it, the benefits of reading the book make it quite worthwhile.

The Last Book in the Universe

Book Review: The Last Book in the Universe

Author: Rodman Philbrick

Highly recommended for: Boys and girls, middle school and up.

Genre: Sci-fi/cyberpunk/futuristic dystopia

If you liked: The Giver, Riddley Walker, The City of Ember, Fahrenheit 451, Feed

What's not to like about this story? It has all my favorite elements going for it: the setting is a post-apocalyptic wasteland, the protagonist is a disabled yet plucky misfit who must go on a quest to save the only person who has ever shown him any love (his adoptive sister), and one of the central tensions of the story is whether or not the last book in the universe will be destroyed.

Spaz, our boy hero, lives in a nightmarish future after the so-called "shake," a planetwide natural disaster that turns the world into a post apocalyptic wasteland. He encounters the idiosyncratic Ryter, an old dude who just so happens to be the last person in existence who knows how to write books. Ryter wants to complete his life story (in book form) before he dies. As the story progresses, the two must embark on a mutual quest that takes them to Eden, an enclave of priveleged supergenetically engineered humans.

This book is fun to read, and I believe it will be enjoyed equally by boys or girls.

Check out the more detailed summary on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Book_in_the_Universe

Push by Sapphire

Review: Push by Sapphire
Suggested Age: High school and up with parental guidance
Cultural/Social references: Harlem, Louis Farakhan, rape, incest, Down's Syndrome, HIV, homosexuality
Recommended: Highly, with guidance/maturity

I was afraid to see the movie Precious, afraid I would be too upset by it. So I decided to read the book Push, on which the movie is based, instead. And yes, it was upsetting. However, the book was also impossible to put down. I read it cover to cover in one night.

The main character, Precious, has been sexually abused by both her father and mother since the age of three. She has borne two children to her own father. Her earliest memory of her mother is being forced to perform oral sex on her. Disturbing stuff.

Still, Precious has a will to live, and she finally encounters a teacher who gives her the tools to learn to read and write. A path emerges through the darkness.

This book uses very explicit language and describes incestuous sex in quite graphic detail. However, I do not feel the writing ventures into exploitational or gratuitous sexuality--instead, the writing quite beautifully illustrates the heroine's inner life.

The White Darkness

Review: The White Darkness by Geraldine McCaughrean
Age suggestion: High School and adult
Cultural references: Antarctica, Symmes's Hole, Deafness/Disability
Recomended: Highly

The White Darkness is one of the most original books I have read in a long time. The narrator is a 15 year old girl who is willingly abducted by her eccentric uncle to go along on an expedition to the South Pole. The book is quite masterful in its characterization of the narrator in that only slowly does the reader realize that the narrator herself is both unreliable and eccentric, if not quite as crazy as her uncle. The book is suspenseful and fun to read. I suggest it for high school and above because I think most middle schoolers will miss some of the subtle ways the author introduces the foibles and self-delusions of the narrator.